Posted December 2007

Barbara Zeller joined the medical staff of HELP/Project Samaritan (PSI) in 1991, and became medical director shortly after. At that time PSI opened an innovative long term care facility that that incorporated a structured drug treatment program for people living with AIDS. Dr. Zellers’s vision was to provide a compassionate place for healing in which people who felt stigmatized by AIDS and addiction could feel safe and cared for, as a first step in the recovery process. She recognized that sympathetic care and treatment provided hope to patients with this frightening illness, and that with such hope and the tools for change, patients could face the challenges of illness and addiction and create the possibility of regaining dignity and reconciliation with family and community. She fostered the medical team’s understanding that the interdisciplinary care team is critical to a program’s ability to provide appropriate interventions for residents with complex medical, mental health, and social service needs.

Dr. Zeller trained at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed her residency at Roosevelt Hospital’s Internal Medicine Program. Her initial interest in drug and alcohol treatment grew from her experience responding to needs of the underserved that she encountered during her residency. In the late 1970’s she worked to develop Lincoln Hospital’s Detox Program’s first community acupuncture program and School of Acupuncture, among other innovative methods. Her experiences with the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS led her to Project Samaritan and developing a continuum of care for substance users with HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Zeller encouraged clinical research in the long term care setting and was co-investigator on an NIH funded grant addressing the Natural History of Late Stage HIV/AIDS in the Era of HAART. She collaborated with the NYC Department of Health on investigating Influenza A in patients with HIV. Since 2000, Dr. Zeller has chaired the Council of HIV Long Term Care Clinical Directors.

She was involved in the planning group for the Adult Day Health Care Programs for people living with HIV/AIDS, and has utilized her leadership skills in implementing and overseeing the medical component of programs that Project Samaritan opened in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. In 2003, Dr. Zeller spent several months at the Sinikithemba Clinic in Durban, South Africa to provide care and train medical providers who were embarking on their first antiretroviral program. Barbara Zeller’s career has encompassed a wide scope of HIV/AIDS service provision that continues to meet the complete range of medical needs of patients.

Dr. Zeller is a member of the NYS HIV Quality of Care Advisory Committee and is vice-chair of the Women’s Health Care Guidelines Committee of the AIDS Institute.